Chapter 556: An Expanding Universe

“Pandora, what’s that little ball you’re always fiddling with?” Azraelith asked me. Today was my last day training her, and I have to say, the results were surprising. She learns incredibly fast, and the usual taunts have practically lost their effect.

To the point where I had to constantly switch things up to finally make her lose her cool. And considering she’s the Representative of the Sin of Wrath, her being able to overcome that anger is noteworthy.

I myself can’t overcome the hunger that comes from being the representative of gluttony, so in that regard, her mental control is immense. Maybe if she weren’t the representative of wrath, she’d have a stronger mindset than mine.

“It’s a universe. I’m creating modifications to free our mother. I’ve been expanding and stabilizing it since I woke up after learning the fundamentals of creation.” Azraelith stared at the transparent core in my hands.

“A universe?”

“Yeah, though it’s pretty simple overall. But now that I have a lot more knowledge, it’ll finally start to look like a real universe. Want to come in with me?”

“…No.”

“That’s fine. But since today was my last day training you, and tomorrow starts the days you’ll be training me, I’m going to enter the universe I created. I’ll try to come back quickly, but you know how time in the abyss is confusing, right?”

“I’ll probably be gone a few days. I’ve already adjusted everything so the time difference between transitions isn’t too big, so I won’t be gone for years or millennia.”

“Well.” She threw herself onto the bed as I took a deep breath. This would be my first time entering my modified universe. One of the things I did was give souls to all its inhabitants. Before, they were more like small avatars independent of me.

But now, they’re truly living beings. Having received souls, their behavior would be less standardized.

“Hey, Pandora, before you go…” Azraelith interrupted me as I was about to leave.

“Try moving your universe. A core is great and all, but if someone strong finds it, they could infect it with their own mana and damage it since it’s a miniature.”

’She’s right…’

“Thanks for the warning. I’ll see what I can do.” I’d probably change the core’s composition, make it non-physical. That way, no one could easily affect my universe, even if they found the core.

“See you in a few days, sister! While I’m gone, think of a great training session for your sweet little sister here.” I waved and entered my universe to finish adjusting it from the inside.

“…” I appeared in that city, and the first thing I did was look at the horizon. And just as expected, it was now immense. My universe, which was once the size of a small town, was now easily the size of a planet Earth.

’Still small, but even so, it’s perfectly stable in a way I couldn’t achieve before…’ I watched the inhabitants of my universe walking the streets. And this time, I saw something in them I had never seen before.

Genuine emotions. They’d had emotions before, but they were controlled emotions, a pattern I’d hardwired into their brains. They generally only knew sadism, cruelty, worship, and duty. Their minds were wired to focus on causing pain to those I brought here to torture.

’Good thing I’m wearing clothes…’ I looked at the elegant dress Azraelith had made for me. It would be weird to come in here naked.

“…” I saw a small inhabitant crying while trying to get an ice cream from a bully who was smiling at her. I looked at the emotions of both and saw love. The bully loved the other but didn’t know how to express it, so she was lightly bullying her to get attention. I never taught that.

’Love… she loves… I never added love as an existing emotion in their bodies… seems souls are far more complex than my past self expected.’ They gained feelings because they gained souls.

It’s truly curious. It shows that emotions aren’t just something that comes from the brain and chemical processes; they also come from the soul. Probably because the soul molds the basic form of the body, so the brain is also molded by the soul itself.

“Goddess!!!” Someone saw me and ran over. In the end, the worship seemed to remain the same, because as soon as one saw me and screamed, everyone looked at me, and I saw them all captivated by me.

“Could someone here call Number 1?” As soon as I said that, a few quickly ran off towards the school. Curiously, I saw Velvet and Akari having sex behind a tree.

’These perverts don’t have an ounce of decency.’ This is the public area in the city center, near the school. In short, it’s where my statue is and where dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of my universe’s inhabitants pass by every day.

“…” I walked over to the two, emerging from behind the tree they thought was hiding them well. Velvet saw me and smiled, while Akari didn’t even seem aware of her surroundings.

“She looks doped up. Did you drug her?” I asked Velvet, seeing Akari’s glazed eyes and tears. She seemed to be enjoying it a lot, and Velvet’s strap-on looked immense. I was surprised that fit in there.

“Yep, we’re testing out drugged sex. But it’s nothing too bad. It’s more like a cerebral sedative. It relaxes the brain and dampens reactions a lot, which lets only the most intense feelings through.”

’I see, it’s like a filter. It blocks weak emotions and lets the intense ones through. So Akari literally only feels pleasure and nothing else…’ It was interesting, though I didn’t understand how Velvet got drugs here.

“By the way, Pandora, truly impressive work. I saw the universe grow and the inhabitants here gain souls. Everyone here felt it. They seem more alive now.” Velvet complimented me, tugging on Akari’s leash as she came.

“You’re really not going to stop this, even to talk to me?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Of course not. I was brought here to fulfill my beloved disciple’s desires!! And Akari came to this universe for me. You’re not going to judge us for liking each other, are you?”

“…Haaa… you’re like an irrational beast when it comes to sex.”

“Hehehe, I’m a succubus, you should expect this behavior. Now, could you excuse us? Your mana is so dense it’s hard to breathe, and while I do enjoy a bit of pain, honestly, I’m busy, as you can see.” She punctuated her sentence by slapping Akari’s ass, making her squirm.

’These two have practically become a climate phenomenon in my universe.’ Apparently, they were always having sex. Finding them wasn’t even about eroticism anymore; it was more like, ’Oh, there they are again,’ since they were always doing it in different ways.

From what I could see, even the inhabitants of this universe had already understood that the two were like the blue sky or the rain—it could randomly happen and you’d end up seeing it, but overall, it didn’t really change your life, so they’d gotten used to them.

“…Sure.” I sighed and moved away from them. Anyway, it really was an agreement, and I keep my agreements. Besides, Velvet had helped me out a bit before, so there was no reason for me to bother them.

“Goddess!! Here I am!!” Number 1 came running, her eyes full of joy and worship as she stopped in front of me. She seemed much happier than before. Gaining a soul had truly done wonders for her.

“Number 1, I came to check on the universe’s situation. I expanded its size, but I didn’t increase the number of inhabitants.” Before, I used to grow the universe along with the population, but this time I only expanded the size and nothing else.

“Everything is in order!! Although there’s a lot of space now, so outside our city, practically nothing has been explored!!” She said with a smile.

“That’s fine. I have a more important matter.” I grabbed her by the waist, sliding my hand under her clothes and over her belly, touching above her uterus and ovaries. She moaned as I rubbed gently.

’I knew it. Not just this, her entire body changed because of the soul…’ She could get pregnant now, and I never allowed normal pregnancy for them here. It turns out that the soul blueprint I have wasn’t created by me; it’s from the Primordial Goddess, the same one all goddesses used to create souls.

In other words, it’s like an instruction manual that comes with thousands of functions that get added whether you want them to or not.

“Number 1, you’ll need to enforce order a little more strictly regarding sex among the other inhabitants. Pregnancy is now possible, and I don’t want you multiplying like rabbits. Limit how many children they can have per month to a stable rate.” Overpopulation would be problematic, but I also didn’t want to forbid them from having children.

“I’ll do that as soon as possible, Goddess!” I pulled away from her, licking my lips. Undeniably, Number 1 was really hot.

’No, no thinking about sex now. I’m too busy… damn Velvet, showing me obscenities.’ I took a deep breath.

“So, how are the heroes?”

“Being tortured as always!! Plus, we’ve innovated some really fun rules and punishments, hehehe!! Oh, and the heroes’ parents are still imprisoned underground with their appropriate tortures. Sometimes we even let the heroes go down there to watch them being tortured.” She spoke with immense malice.

“Great. Listen, Number 1, I’ll be bringing my mother here soon. So I want everything organized. If, for any reason, a problem occurs, my mother feels dissatisfied, or one of the heroes shows up and ruins everything, I might really reconsider why you exist here.” She shuddered at my threat.

“D-Don’t worry, Goddess! I’ll take care of everything perfectly! I won’t fail you!! You’ll be appearing in the city square, right? I’ll close off the area to the general public and handle it in a controlled manner!”

“Do that. Now, give me a tour of the city. I want to see how things have changed around here… I’m really curious to experience it.” For now, I knew there wouldn’t be many changes because they’d only recently gained their souls. But in the future, in 3, 5, or 10 years, many things were sure to be different.

“By the way, Number 1, I’ll be adding new animals, fruits, vegetables, plants, and insects to this world. Of course, they won’t be directly in the city. I’ll choose an area near here and add them there for you to deal with.”

“Thank you for your immense benevolence towards us, Goddess! Our bodies have recently started using up much more energy. And although we don’t starve to death, the lack of energy leaves some of us lethargic and uncomfortable.”

’I see. So food became necessary when they gained souls because their bodies developed further. But since death doesn’t exist in my universe, they don’t die… interesting.’ I followed her, satisfied with the results.

Though, it was a bit unsettling to have lost absolute control over my universe. Now the inhabitants truly had a choice about what they wanted to do or not. But it was a cost I was willing to accept.

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